LTE Awards 2012 – Category 6 Preview: Best LTE Core Network Element

Now in its third year, the annual LTE Awards, in association with Telecoms.com, are established as the leading event of its kind. The LTE Awards are designed to recognise, celebrate and reward the great innovations that are being made in the industry, and this year are co-located with the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the evening of the 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona. The event is sure to be a glamorous and entertaining evening for all participants.

The winners, from a varied selection of 10 categories and 48 shortlisted companies, will be picked by an independent panel of judges, consisting of leading industry experts, during a two week assessment process.

To whet your appetite for the event here is a preview of Category 6: Best LTE Core Network Element.

This award recognises core network elements that are exceptional in their area. The judges will ascertain how they contribute to making LTE more attractive for operators to deploy and the part they played in the success of a commercial LTE deployment.

Alcatel-Lucent: 4G Consumer Communications Solution

Alcatel-Lucent is looking to provide the first comprehensive communications solution for the industry that combines voice, messaging and video across a combination of device, screen and network. The idea behind the converged communications solution is to make using video as easy for consumers as voice in now. It looks to combine all forms of communications, whether they use telecoms or web based networks. Alcatel-Lucent’s Advanced Communication Platform tightly links service control with network access and includes a Converged Telephony Server, which combines a voice and video across fixed and mobile, a Media Resource Function that enables HD video conferencing and a Services Continuity Gateway to transfer calls between 2G/3G and LTE networks. Four operators have so far contracted Alcatel-Lucent and there are 13 trials around the world.

Huawei Technologies

Huawei’s SingleEPC (Evolved Packet Core) suite is a unified packet core network that supports all 3GPP and Non-3GPP access technologies. It was released to the market in December 2009, when it was deployed on the world’s first LTE/EPC commercial network. Among its technical highlights Huwawei’s SingleEPC can handle 64 times the average signalling traffic, supporting operators in building robust LTE/EPC networks. It supports Precise Paging to save 60 per cent paging load for LTE and Policy Paging to improve QoE of time-sensitive services. The node virtualization feature of SingleEPC enables maximum network resource utilization and is an important step toward future Cloud-based EPC network evolution. By the end of 2011, Huawei’s SingleEPC suite has been deployed on more than 110 commercial and trial EPC networks run by the world’s leading operators.

Mavenir Systems

The Mavenir Convergence Telephone Application Server was launched in May 2011 and runs on Mavenir’s mOne Convergence Platform. C-TAS is a key core network element to help operators introduce VoLTE, which is set to usher in a new era of communications comprising of rich, real-time voice and video services, across any access generation and any device.  The C-TAS is an integrated multi-functional network element designed to support MMtel-based VoLTE, FMC services such as wifi calling, and Femto- based services.  Mavenir C-TAS is based on COTS and ATCA hardware, and also supports the Rich Messaging Server, key components for LTE Messaging, RCS-e and upcoming RCS v5 services. Mavenir C-TAS has been used by T-Mobile USA, delivering the first live mobile wifi calling service based on IMS. MetroPCS is poised to become one of the first VoLTE service providers in the world, while Vodafone Germany is using Mavenir C-TAS for CSFB-based LTE Voice.

Symmetricom

Symmetricom’s TimeProvider Master Clock has been on the market for two months. It is the first solution of its kind supporting legacy networks that will enable service providers to deploy the necessary synchronisation protocols to support next generation services. A Grandmaster or master clock is required in all communication networks to provide a source of time for all network services and manage bulling/logging. Without precise timing and synchronisation in a communications network, call hand-off from site to site will be negatively impacted, and network bandwidth will degrade and affect video quality. As 4G/LTE networks will be all-IP, it’s important to have a timing solution that supports multiple synchronization protocols to protect the network. The TimeProvider 5000 Master Clock is the industry’s first solution to deliver multi-sync capabilities with massive scale on a single platform to support the sync requirements of next generation networks. China Mobile was the first carrier to deploy the TimeProvider 5000 Master Clock to support their packet transfer network (PTN) deployment.

Tekelec

Tekelec’s Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) gives carriers the ability to manage the “signalling storm”of overloaded networks. Diameter is the LTE signalling protocol that carries policy, charging, mobility management, and authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA) traffic. The DSR acts as the central nervous system of the network, providing a single hub for all Diameter traffic. It reduces the complexity of connecting, provisioning and interoperating essential Diameter-based equipment from multiple vendors. By providing a single connection point for all Diameter traffic, the DSR centralizes Diameter routing, signalling traffic management and load-balancing tasks. Nine global service providers have selected 13 DSR systems, including US providers Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS.

ZTE Corporation

ZTE core network product is called the ISGW (Integration Service Gateway) and it has been on the market for one year. The idea behind the ISGW is that users can get more bandwidth in areas where LTE and wifi overlap. The ISGW is an integrated service gateway that ISGW allow users with dedicated devices to access LTE and wifi networks at the same time and aggregate the two bandwidth of each. It maintains the wifi and LTE connections but associate one IP session to the device. It also offers unified charging for the wifi and LTE session. The ISGW has been deployed by CSL in Hong Kong to supply the LTE service for all of smart phone users with wifi hotspot access.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.